JERSEY SHORE — Grief has filled the firehouse at the Independent Hose Company No. 1 on Pennsylvania Avenue.

“It’s been rough, very rough,” company Fire Chief Robert Cowfer said.

“It’s like losing a member of your family, because we are a family. We’re all brothers here,” Cowfer said Monday morning, three days after fire company member Ronald Dailey Jr., 37, a contracted security officer at Lycoming Engines on Oliver Street in Williamsport, was killed on Terrace Place, just around the corner from the plant.

Dailey and fellow security officer Alisha Seese, also 37, of Williamsport, were found shot to death in a vehicle about 12:30 a.m. Friday, city police said.

“We were told that the two were leaving work, and Ron was walking her to her car,” moments before they were killed, Cowfer said. Lycoming Engines confirmed both Dailey and Seese were employees of Security Alliance, a contractor the company uses for security services.

Cowfer, a member of the fire company for nearly 40 years, said he had known Dailey since Dailey joined the fire department in his late teens.

“He just got engaged at Christmas,” Cowfer said.

“We’re all in mourning here, all in disbelief because of how it happened,” he added.

Cowfer said Dailey “was the kind of guy who would take his shirt off his back and give it to you if you needed it. He was a very giving man. He would do anything for anyone.”

The fire chief went on to say that “If I needed anything done at the firehouse, he was the first to step forward and do it.”

On the night of Feb. 15, 2020, Dailey was one of a team of five firefighters who rescued a third-floor resident trapped in his apartment in the burning Broadway Hotel at 120 S. Broad St. His brave efforts that night earned Dailey, and others who took part in the rescue, a commendation from the governor’s office.

“Ron would go to anyone’s aid if he saw someone in trouble. From what we have been told, that’s what he was doing the night of the homicide,” Cowfer said.

“We know Ron enjoyed his work (at Lycoming Engines). He was putting in a lot of overtime,” Cowfer said, adding that if Dailey wasn’t at work, and “if he was available, he would be at the firehouse helping all of us out with anything.

“Ron was well liked by everyone. He is going to be missed by everyone in the fire department and in the community. He was really an all-around great guy.”

While fire company members are grieving the loss of Dailey, a father of three, and making preparations for his viewing, which will be held at the fire station from noon to 2 p.m. Thursday, the fire department was still handling emergency calls. On Monday alone, Independent Hose Company No. 1 responded to a multiple-alarm blaze in Bastress Township, a vehicle into a structure on Kerr Avenue and a furnace malfunction on Burke Street.

Concerning the investigation into the double homicide, Lycoming County District Attorney Tom Marino said late Monday afternoon that no arrest has yet been made, but that he was encouraged with how the investigation was proceeding.

Police said a person of interest was taken into custody late Friday on a charge of violating a protection from abuse order and was in custody. That person’s identity has not been disclosed, and all court documents concerning the protection order have been sealed.

Marino said “a lot of officers, agents and county detectives are working a full-court press” on the case.